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A hair-raising experience Photo by Bob Pennell U.S. Army Sgt. Edward Wilson provides energy to light fluorescent tubes held by McLoughlin eighth-graders Tim Erickson and Anastasia Mathewson Monday. Wilson is traveling with the National Science Center's mobile classroom. Traveling science center entertains middle-school students By VICKI GUARINO Light bulbs glowed, hair stood on end and a plate of glass rolled like waves on a lake as a national science tour opened in Medford Monday. "You could feel the electricity," Anastasia Mathewson said after making a florescent bulb glow in her bare hands. "I didn't want to touch the metal because I was afraid I'd get barbecued." No shock, no burns, but the McLoughlin Middle School eighth-grader could feel the force of the electrical field as she stood in the front of the National Science Center's mobile classroom. She was among the first Medford students participating in what will be a two-week series of science and math demonstrations at McLoughlin and Hedrick middle schools co-hosted by the center, based in Augusta, Ga., and the U.S Army. Students are watching the effects of electricity on hairstyles and well as light bulbs, and they are seeing the power of sound as sound waves wiggle glass _ and occasionally break it. Demonstrations take place in a self-contained lab housed in an 18-wheeler. The long-haul classroom tours the county to stir up interest in math and science. In sessions led by army sergeants, students hear and see how professions as varied as race-car driving and fashion designing are dependent on science and math know-how. And students share a few laughs as they fumble through experiments. Eighth-grader Jessica Daly, who usually gets good grades in math and science, wasn't sure she learned anything new in the hourlong presentation, but she said she had a good time falling prey to one of the tricks of perception that were part of Army Sgt. Edward Wilson's session. Fun is an important part of the presentation, said McLoughlin Principal Doug McKenzie, and crucial to getting kids interested in academics. "We hope they can entertain us a little bit and teach us a little bit," McKenzie said. The two middle schools are on a long list of schools around the country requesting the Mobile Discovery Center. The rig is on the road eight to 10 months a year, says Wilson, and the waiting list for schools is about five months long. This is the center's first stop in Medford. But since going on the road in 1992, the center has had some 300,000 student visitors stretching from central Maine to Southern California. From Hedrick Middle School, the center stops next in Petaluma, Calif. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA